Dead Book
by FerretsInTheTARDIS
Summary: The 11th Doctor doesn't know it yet but after traveling with Captain Jack Harkness and a new and mysterious companion he will be fighting an old foe as he is introduced to his new companions. I originally wrote this for my friend but I really wanted to share it so I changed the names of characters and places. I plan on regularly adding chapters since the book is already finished.
1. Chapter 1

In a suburb in Uplands Forest, Illinois there is a library that was still opened late on a Saturday night, and it holds only a Librarian and a young volunteer. This young sophomore has some very good friends at Uplands Forest North High School. She has two younger sisters and one older one. She lives with her mom, and in the United States that girl does not know that all her life she has been waiting to be taken away and experience life in the greatest ways she could ever possibly imagine.

"I have to skive off now, would you mind closing up in a tad dearie?" Miss Gail, the librarian, called over the shelves of books to the young sophomore, Lily Bennet. "I have to get home before my fit chap gives me a bell." The stout woman giggled, her eyes were painted bright blue with dark black eyeliner. She had curly, colored, brown hair and she was wearing a dress that had a long skirt and no waist. Lily looked up at Miss Gail.

"What?" She asked giving the librarian the most bemused face; she was wearing a blue t-shirt with her school's name, Uplands Forest North, printed on the front of it and dark blue jeans. Her black hair was tied back and her height gave the impression that the kids' book section was shorter than it really was.

"I have to avoid closing the library because a hot male friend is going to call me, could you close up in a little bit?" Miss Gail translated, Lily still looked confused at her, and Miss Gail smiled and explained further. "The guy I am dating is British and he has been teaching me to speak like a real Brit!" Lily laughed at Miss Gail. She seemed like a typical high school girl, who just got asked out by the star quarterback, and Lily wondered if she would ever feel that way too.

"Miss Gail, I am only a volunteer. I am not aloud to lock up." Lily said with a face of complete innocence, but her words were covered in sarcasm.

"Oi!" Miss Gail exclaimed wagging a finger in Lily's direction, "Don't give me that rubbish, you've done it before." The two smiled at each other; Lily walked over and took the keys from Miss Gail. "Dog's bollocks! Remember to lock up the door by turning the key anti-clockwise."

"What?" Miss Gail's 'hip lingo' once again confused Lily.

"Awesome, remember to lock up you turn the key counter clockwise." Miss Gail said rolling her eyes up to the ceiling.

"Your a nutter." Lily said grinning; the two looking at each other and busted into uncontrollable laughter. Miss Gail slipped on her jacket and made her way to the door. "Now get out of here," Lily continued, "I'll close up the library after I clean up a little more." Miss Gail pulled the door wide open. "Have fun!" Lily called after her.

"Absobloodylootely!" Mrs. Gail replied smiling from ear to ear.

"What?" Lily asked again.

"YES!" Miss Gail yelled back over her shoulder. Lily stood there laughing, alone in the library, just the way she liked it.

Lily wandered the library picking books up off the tables and finding their places. The Library had two floors, with an Adult, Media, Teens, and Children sections. The library was silent and only half of the lights were on, Lily would manually turn the rest off before she left. She was on the second floor in the Teens section picking up books from the tables and dropping them onto a cart; she walked over to a table where Miss Gail had been working at earlier. Lily picked up the book and laughed. She was holding the book that was sitting on the table, 'Oi! Dummy I am Speaking British'. Lily took the book and sat down in one of the beanbag chairs that were inside the Teen section. Lily opened it up and started to read.

Lily had been completely wrapped up in the book and had gotten to 'Bog Roll' when her cellphone rang. She pulled the phone out of her back pocket, "Hello?" Lily answered still looking at the definition of 'Bog Roll'.

"Where are you?" It was Lily's mother, Rachel Bennet.

"I am at the library." Lily responded moving onto the next word 'Bogie'.

"Well, it is 11:30 were you planning on coming home tonight?" Lily spun her head round and looked at the clock on the wall.

"Blimey! I'm a bloody tosser!" She exclaimed in surprise shutting the book shut and holding it close to her chest, so she wouldn't drop it.

"What! Are you hurt?" Miss Bennet panicked at the sound of blood.

Even though she knew her mom couldn't see her Delilah shook her head, "No mom I am learning how to be British." Lily informed her mother calmly.

"Don't you be sarcastic with me young lady!" Miss Bennet exclaimed at her daughter. "Should I call you an ambulance?"

"No, mom, I really am learning how to be British, I have been reading a book with a bunch of British slang." Lily explained, and her mother let out a sigh of relief.

"Well get home right now, you go back tomorrow, and you're going to have to heat up your dinner when you get home tonight." Mrs. Bennet informed her daughter.

"I am going to turn off the lights and get in the car right now mom." Lily said getting up from the beanbag. "I will see you when I get home."

"Bye Lily." Her mother said through the phone.

"Bye." Lily hung up and went to the fuse box and flicked all the switches down, and with that the entire library went dark. She used her phone to light the way to the exit, and locked the doors behind her. Lily walked out to the only car left in the lot, a beaten up and old blue bug, not a black Impala but hers at least. When she got in the car she realized she was still carrying the British slang book.

"I will bring it back tomorrow morning." Lily told herself not wanting to go back, unlock the doors, go inside the library, turn on all the lights, put the book back on the table, turn the lights off and lock the doors again. Lily turned the key in the ignition and started the car. "No point going back for one little book." She backed out of the spot and drove on home.

When Lily had woken up in bed the next morning, she could smell pancakes downstairs. She got out of bed wearing her sweatpants and t-shirt and walked across the hall to the bathroom to put in her contact lenses. When she went downstairs to the kitchen she grabbed the carton of milk from the fridge and two glasses from the cabinet.

"Good morning mom." Lily said as she brought the glasses and milk to the table and filled them, then went back to the cabinets to collect plates for the table.

"Good morning Lily." Her mother was working at the skillet, while Lily was grabbing peanut butter, butter and syrup. "How was your night at the library?" she asked looking over her shoulder at the table where Lily had found the British slang book.

"Brilliant!" Lily said holding up the book. Her mom smiled.

"You going back to the library this morning?" Lily's mother asked as Lily held a plate for her to drop pancakes onto.

"Yes I am." Lily said sitting down at the table and dropping some pancakes onto her own plate.

"Do you think you could get me a cook book while you are there?" Lily's mom sat down in her own seat, and forked some pancakes onto her plate.

"Sure. Any thing specific?" Lily asked as she popped some of the warm fluffy pancake into her mouth.

"No not really." Lily's mom said shrugging as she poured syrup over her pancakes. "I just want some inspiration, maybe something Chinese or Korean." Lily got up and looked at the clock, 7:35.

"I'll see what I can find." Lily put her plate and cup in the sink and went back up stairs to change. "Hi Kit. Hi Cat." She greeted her two cats that were sitting on the stairs. Lily brushed her teeth and put on her jeans and a different Uplands Forest North High School t-shirt, and then slipped on her black Converse.

Walking out to her car Lily waved to her neighbor Mrs. Olson who was collecting her newspaper. "You going to the library sweetie?" Mrs. Olson called out to Lily.

"Yes ma'am, do you need a ride?" Lily offered pulling her keys out of her pocket.

"No thank you, I am not driving in until later." Miss Olson waved her hand dismissively. "Steven is sick so it will take me a while to get to the library. Do you mind telling Miss Gail?" Mrs. Olson asked Lily.

"I will." Lily answered. "See you later Mrs. Olson."

Lily got to the library where she found Miss Gail standing at the entrance, frantically searching through her purse. Lily exited her car and walked up to her.

"Are you okay Miss Gail?" Lily asked her as she got leveled with her. The librarian turned around to face Lily.

"No, I can't find my bloody keys!" Lily dug her arms into her pockets as Miss Gail waved her hands in frustration, "And we open in 10 minutes and that is barely enough time to get every thing set up and running!" Miss Gail sounded furious and seemed like she might just get violent when Lily pulled out the keys from her pocket, she held them out to Miss Gail. "Oi! Where did you find them?"

"You had me lock up last night." Lily reminded her calmly.

"Why would I do that? You are only a volunteer, you are not aloud to lock up!" Miss Gail exclaimed angrily.

"You gave me the keys to lock up so you could go out with your boyfriend. Don't you remember?" Lily asked still trying to keep her voice calm.

"My what?" Miss Gail said furiously. "What kind of story is this? Did you nick my keys?"

"No! You were going out with your fit chap so you asked me to lock up for you, and I did not nick your keys!" Lily held her hands up defensively and looked at Miss Gail with great concern.

"Oh, I remember now," Miss Gail's expression softened, Lily tried to relax but as Miss Gail continued she grew more worried. "I must apologize, my brain must need an upgrade." She took the keys from Lily and opened the door for her.

"It is okay Miss Gail, everyone forgets things every once in a while." Lily started unlocking the other doors from the inside and turned back to Miss Gail. "By the way, Mrs. Olson is coming in late her son, Steven, is sick." Miss Gail became stiff and strict all in a second. She was no longer soft and sweet but full of rage and anger.

"Her feelings for this boy, Steven, are blocking her ability to perform her task. She must be upgraded or deleted." Lily looked sharply at her.

"Her son is sick! You can't fire her! She'll get here soon it is only going to be a little while!" Miss Gail looked at Lily with a blank expression before she pitched forward, fainting. Lily moved quickly barely catching her in time.

"Miss Gail!" Lily struggled to hold her up. Lily unsure of what to do pushed and held the door open with her foot as she dragged Miss Gail into the back office. Lily put her down in the chair and then taking out her phone she called Mrs. Olson.

"Hello?" Mrs. Olson answered.

"Mrs. Olson, this is Lily, I know you said you weren't going to come in until later, but this is an emergency!" Lily tried her hardest not to sound too worried. A strong smell of metal had wafted into the room and was making her feel nauseous.

"Is something wrong sweetie?" Mrs. Olson asked sounding concerned.

"Miss Gail just passed out and the Library is opening soon." Lily glanced over at Miss Gail unconscious in the chair. "Can you please come and help?" She begged through the phone.

"I will be there in 3 minutes, do I need to call paramedics?" Lily checked that Miss Gail had a pulse and that she was still breathing.

"No, she is fine, she almost seems to be asleep." Lily said into the phone. "She went out with a guy last night, she might just be fighting a hangover."

"Well I am right outside the library, see you in a sec." They hung up, and a minute later Mrs. Olson came into the back office where Lily and Miss Gail were. "Was she okay when you came in?" Mrs. Olson asked immediately crouching down next to Miss Gail.

"She sounded out of her mind, she kept talking as if she came from Great Britain or something." They both looked at the sleeping librarian lying in the chair. "Is she all right?" Lily asked with great concern.

"She should be fine." Miss Olson said getting up from the ground beside Miss Gail, then she handed Lily a pen and paper. "Write her a note." "Okay." There was still a faint metallic smell hanging in the air. Mrs. Olson left the room leaving Lily with the sleeping Miss Gail. Lily looked down at her and then moved to the desk with the pen and paper.

"Hello Lily." Miss Gail had woken and found Lily stacking the teen sci-fi books away. "Thank you for helping me." She was smiling at the young volunteer hard at work.

"No problem Miss Gail," Lily said smiling back weakly. "Are you feeling any better?" Lily asked.

"Yes I am feeling much better," Miss Gail said nodding stiffly. "Nothing was making sense earlier, I just needed to reboot." Lily looked at her confused. "I needed a tad of a kip?" but Lily just continued to look at Miss Gail confused even more by her words. "Argh!" Miss Gail exclaimed in annoyance. "You Americans, I needed a little bit of sleep." Lily continued to look at her but smiled hoping it might calm her down.

"Okay, Miss British Royalty." Lily said trying not to sound too sarcastic, and slowly backing away with her stack of books.

"That would be Miss Toff." Miss Gail said correcting Lily and taking three steps closer to her.

"What?" Lily asked really starting to worry about Miss Gail's behavior and attitude.

"Toff, it means to be upper class." Miss Gail said rolling her eyes obviously on the brink of annoyance and anger. "Know your onions, girl." Lily tried not to show her confusion but Miss Gail could see that she still didn't understand. Lily was still slowly backing away from the agitated Miss Gail.

"Never mind just get back to work. I need you to read with the children in 5 minutes." Miss Gail started to walk away from Lily.

"Christina usually does that though." Lily said thinking Miss Gail might still be confused after she had fainted.

"Christina has been deleted! Now obey! Go!" Miss

Gail walked away, and Lily stood there noticing for the first time that Miss Gail was wearing the same clothes she had been wearing the day before.

Lily decided to avoid Miss Gail for the rest of the day, as to not test her patience and when she left she was in such a rush, such a hurry to get away from the library that while she was leaving she just dismissed the strange sound that filled the night air.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Lily!"

"Hm?" Lily sat up straighter in her math class, she was in the back of the room zoned out, and found that all eyes were on her.

"Lily, could you answer my question please?" Mr. Mais asked looking very impatient. Lily was wearing a blue shirt and jeans, thinking frantically of what question he was referring to. Was he talking about the one on the board or was it just some random question that had nothing to do with what was on the board. Lily felt pressured by every eye in the room and she was about to admit that she hadn't been paying attention, when someone else broke the awkward silence.

"Yeah Lily," Came a voice from her left, "should we use the quadratic formula or the distributive property to answer the question, on the board?" Lily smiled to her friend, Tanja Sage, and sneakily checked the problem on the board.

"Quadratic formula." Lily answered looking at Mr. Mais who wasn't looking at her but at Tanja.

"Sage with the save." He said giving a small smile. "Yes, that is correct, Lily." He walked back to the board and picking up a marker continued his lesson. Lily's best friend Anna Reeve sat in front of Tanja and reached back under the desk to give her a high five. Lily smiled to herself, but then began to frown as she sunk back into her mind where she stayed vacant for the rest of class.

"Lily!" Lily jumped, banging her knee on the underside of her desk, grabbing onto her knee she looked round to find Tanja and Anna standing on each side of her, both of them yelling her name into each ear.

"WHAT!" Lily yelled back with equal volume. Looking at each girl as if they were crazed lunatics.

"School is over." Anna said as she blew up at her red bangs that were hanging over her brown eyes, her hair was long and hung loose down her back, and the rest of her body was covered in freckles.

"Come on!" Tanja whined stubbornly, "We are going to get stuck behind the buses. MOVE!" she grabbed Lily's bag and started walking away, her long black braid swinging as she left the classroom.

Lily got up and ran with Anna after their Indian friend, Tanja had brown skin, glasses and an orange beaded necklace, and a newly installed nose piercing. Lily and Anna caught up to Tanja at the stairwell; she was wearing her old basketball shoes and her favorite sports jacket. Lily smiled as she took her bag back from Tanja and the three girls started talking as they continued to descend the stairs.

"You seem really out of it today Lily," Anna spoke with concern in her voice, "is everything okay?" she asked as they reached the ground floor and walked out to the parking lot. Tanja walked over to Anna's lime green jeep that was parked next to Lily's blue bug.

"Of course everything is okay." Lily responded with a why-would-you-ask-such-a-ridiculous-question face. The girls hung outside the cars for a moment, quietly looking at each other until Tanja broke the silence.

"Can we please go to the library now." She complained to her friends. "I would drive myself but, you know, I didn't get a car for my 16th Birthday so." Tanja spoke with a fake miserable voice that made Lily and Anna look at her with peculiar what-the-heck-are-you-talking-about looks.

"Well, you shouldn't have failed that math test." Anna informed Tanja raising her eyebrow in gentle surprise.

"Well you know if you hadn't told my mother that I had failed I would have a drivers license right now." Tanja countered tossing her head to the side with attitude.

"Yeah Anna why'd you do that?" Lily jumped into the argument grinning playfully at her friends.

"Well Lily if we want to point fingers why did you give her the wrong study guide?" Anna countered back sarcastically, as the girls continued to play the blame game with each other.

"Yeah Lily, what was that all about?" Tanja asked pointing a finger at Lily looking a small bit annoyed.

"I don't know." Lily said grinning. "Maybe you should have done your own study guide for homework like you were supposed to instead of copying mine." All three girls looked serious at each other then broke out laughing.

Anna still smiling at Tanja started the teasing again again. "You can walk if you want It's not like I have to give you a ride." She was digging through her backpack trying to find her keys.

"Think very carefully about this, Tanja." Lily said looking at her seriously. "It is something she would actually do." Anna was smiling at this as she unlocked the jeep door.

"No she wouldn't." Tanja said waving her hand dismissively at the absurd idea as Anna slid into the driver's seat smiling mischievously. Tanja pulled the passenger door handle but the door wouldn't budge, instead the window rolled down to reveal Anna's gleeful face.

"Hit the road Jack!" All three ladies laughed as Tanja was finally allowed into the car.

"Okay." Lily said getting into her own car. "Let's go then."

The girls got to the library a few minutes later, it was all lit up in the daytime and it was bustling with the talk of high school and college students. It also had plenty of middle age and old geezers walking around reading, checking Email and checking out. The three girls however were just there to study, but first they walked up to the front desk to say hello to Miss Gail. However when they got to the main desk she wasn't there in her normal spot; instead Mrs. Olson occupied the space.

"Hello sweeties how are you today?" Mrs. Olson asked smiling at the young girls.

"Fine Mrs. Olson." Tanja responded. "Where is Miss Gail?" She asked looking around the lobby for her. Mrs. Olson joined her, looking around the room, but Lily noticed it was more out of caution and fear than curiosity. She turned back to the girls and leaned over close.

"She has been acting very strange." She whispered looking up at the girls but focused most of her gaze on Lily. "It isn't just the British stuff anymore, although she is speaking it much more fluently."

"What is she doing?" Lily asked her voice filled with concern.

"Well," Mrs. Olsen spoke anxiously, "she is working in the Tech Department, with Mrs. Muller." She said letting her voice become quieter with each word she spoke. "But normally she can barely start her own computer much less do what she has been doing." Mrs. Olson was flustered.

"I am sure she will be fine Mrs. Olson." Tanja started. "She has probably just taken some classes on computers and is just showing off her new skills." Anna nodded in agreement and Lily began to speak again.

"Yeah and she is dating this British guy so she is learning the slang to probably get closer to him." She said trying to add some more logical explanations to their theories.

"And the computers?" Mrs. Olson started again, "Lily she is changing the firewall and protection on the computers so much that she has me change my password every ten minutes." Lily was about to say something that might have been more comforting but Mrs. Olson had cut her off saying, "She won't stop muttering 'Upgrade' and 'Delete'. I am afraid I might be made redundant."

"What?" Anna asked confused.

"'Fired', it's British slang, I was reading the book Miss Gail has been using to learn it." Lily explained to Anna and Tanja who were now thoroughly lost in translation.

"She won't stop talking like that," Mrs. Olson started worry was smothering her voice, "and every time I ask her what she is talking about, she just tells me I am some 'stupid American' and that I should be either 'upgraded' or 'deleted'. I am just so scared for her." Mrs. Olson was very close to tears at this point.

"It is going to be fine," Anna spoke softly bending down to hold Mrs. Olson's hand, "Lily can talk to her," _'Why me?'_ Lily thought to herself annoyed but seeing Mrs. Olsen she softened up, "maybe she is just having some trouble with the guy she is dating." Anna said trying to sound supportive. "But first we need to study, just hang in there. Alright?" Mrs. Olson nodded and turned to Lily she reached out and took her wrist and started to speak.

"Be careful when you talk to her," Mrs. Olsen informed Lily, "she is on a delicate string." The girls said goodbye and left Mrs. Olson for a cubicle toward the back corner of the Library. When Tanja and Anna left Lily decided to go to the tech room to talk with Miss Gail. When she walked in though Mrs. Muller was the only one there.

"Hello, Mrs. Muller." Lily greeted the aging woman.

"Hello, Lily. Are you volunteering today?" Mrs. Muller gave a grin but her eyes didn't seem to smile back.

"Yes I am," Lily answered smiling a little, "I'm probably going to stay late too. How is it getting on back here?" she asked politely.

"Oh Miss Gail is changing everything!" all of a sudden Mrs. Muller blew up and become very upset. "She is messing around with the equipment, and telling me I am inadequate and that I am an insult to humanity." Mrs. Muller then proceeded to collapse into a chair throwing her face into her palms. "She said that later she would have me deleted!" Mrs. Muller started to sob very loudly. All Lily could do was put a hand on her shoulder, to attempt to comfort her and at that moment Miss Gail decided to walk in. Lily tried to keep her face straight but the metallic smell that came with Miss Gail was overwhelming.

"Hello Miss Gail, is that a new perfume?" Lily asked trying to keep a straight face through all the tears starting to well up in her eyes from the strong odor. "Don't you think it might be a little much though?"

"Shut up!" Miss Gail demanded, Lily's mouth snapped shut, her shock shown brightly through her eyes. "And you!" Miss Gail yelled at Mrs. Muller. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, you daft cow!" Miss Gail practically screamed her head and hands shaking, and as she moved strands of her short hair behind her ears she revealed some sort of Bluetooth earpiece. "You are all in shambles, go home watch the telly get some chips and do your bits 'n bobs!" Lily looked at Miss Gail astonished by what she was hearing. _'What has gotten into her?'_ she asked herself as Miss Gail turned back to her.

"Lily," Miss Gail started again now, "I need you to go organize the card system in the back. It is all messed up, and I want them to be sorted by the Dewy Decimal System, and I want it done tonight." Lily now showed obvious anger and frustration toward Miss Gail. She was glaring at her, trying to burn holes right through. "Remember you, horses for courses cause I am the gaffer." And with that finale of words Miss Gail left the room.

It was late again when Lily finally finished up the sorting, but she stayed where she was and pulled out the British slang book, that was in her book bag. Lily was trying to find some of the things Miss Gail had said earlier in Mrs. Muller's room and after finding the words she could not help but feel insulted. It was 10:50 when her mother sent a text message suggesting that it would be a good idea to get home. Sitting there Lily realized there were no other sounds in the library; and Lily was just hopping she wasn't locked in. She did not want to have to call Miss Gail, at 11 o'clock to ask her to come and save her.

Lily was walking down the stairs from the Teen section when she noticed a light coming from the tech room it was flashing bright blue. Lily started to slowly make her way toward the light when she heard a computerized voice speak.

"_Muller you are to be deleted. Good Bye."_ The blue light became stark white and Lily recognized Mrs. Muller's voice as it screamed out in agony. Lily had to hold her hands over her mouth to keep herself from crying out, and when the door to the room started to open she ducked behind the front desk trying very hard not to breathe too heavily. She could hear footsteps walking toward the back office, and Lily dared herself to look out the side of the desk just in time to see Miss Gail walk into her office and close the door. Lily ran to the doors and out to her car, when the door had closed she started to cry.

Lily didn't know what really happened but she couldn't help but think the worse. While she was crying Lily heard a noise that startled her; she looked around and didn't see anything but a light in the children section and a small structure. Lily didn't really see it and was about to take a second glance when her phone alerted her that she had a text message. Lily wiped her tears with the back of her hands, not bothering to look at the text, knowing it was her mother she just drove away. What Lily did not see was that on the second floor Miss Gail was watching her as she and pulled out of the parking lot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Lily couldn't sleep that night; she was just so confused and scared. She tried to calm down by rereading the third Harry Potter and she tried to study and listening to music, but nothing could sway her mind. She tried to convince herself that Mrs. Muller had screamed because she was only upset, and not because she was dying. Miss Gail was just a librarian, why would she kill anyone? Lily just wanted to forget that it had ever happened and that tomorrow Miss Gail would go back to hating technology and stop caring about British slang. Lily was thinking to other ways to explain Miss Gail's weird behavior when someone knocked at her door and interrupted her thoughts.

"Come in." Lily called out to the knocker, her voice sounding hoarse and dry.

"Lily," It was her mom, "are you okay?" she was carrying a glass of water and a bowl of orange chicken layered over some white rice.

"Yes mom, I am fine. Just a hard day at the library." Lily said rubbing away the tears from her tired eyes and cheeks.

"You want to talk about it?" Lily's mom asked her.

"Not really," Lily responded smiling weakly, "but mom, what do you do when you have a problem or you are scared to do something about the problem?" Lily's mom looked closely at her daughter and as she sat down next to her on the bed she smiled.

"I confront it," Lily's mom started as she handed Lily the glass of water, "I say 'I am not afraid and I can take care of this problem', and it never hurts to have a cheering squad with you. Even just having a small voice in the back of your head saying you can do it." Lily's mom continued to smile at Lily. "Now, how about you go to bed, you have school tomorrow."

"Thanks mom. Night" Lily said as she fell backward onto her covers.

"Good Night, Lily."

Lily headed over to the library early the next morning before school. Tanja wouldn't come with because it was too early in the morning, even if it meant getting a ride to school instead of taking the bus. Lily was tired, confused, scared and wanted answers, and she had figured that she was out of her mind crazy. Lily was going to go and confront a nice librarian and accuse her of murdering a coworker. Lily sat in her car waiting for Miss Gail's car to get to the parking lot, and when it did arrive Lily got up and out of her car and walked right up to Miss Gail who was opening the library doors.

"Hello Lily, if you are here to tell me that Mrs. Olsen is not coming in today because she is sick you don't need to." Miss Gail said holding her hand up in a way to keep Lily quiet. "I know she thinks I am some plonker, but what she doesn't know is that I know she is just skiving off today." Seeing Lily's confused expression Miss Gail translated, "I know she is lying to me, and I told her that I knew. But she claims her son got her sick," Lily's face showed deep concern. "'What can I do?' she said. So I told her she could just sod off. She will have to be deleted of course." She unlocked the door and motioned Lily in, she looked her up and down as she walked past. Lily was feeling overwhelmed and angry toward Miss Gail and she had noticed. "But what about you Lily?"

"What are you doing?" Lily looked at Miss Gail locking the door behind them.

"What about you Lily?" Miss Gail asked again placing the keys in her pocket.

"What do you mean?" Lily longed to throw her hand into that pocket with the key and run away, but she held her ground trying not to show fear.

"What about you, Lily, will you have to be deleted too Lily?" Miss Gail continued, and Lily looked away from the door Miss Gail had just locked and forced herself to look at the old woman.

"I don't understand what you are talking about." Lily lied as she slowly backed up into the front desk trying to stay as far away from the tech room as she could without looking suspicious.

"I know you saw something yesterday." Miss Gail said in a steady voice looking at the tech room as Lily continued to move away from the tech room and Miss Gail. Miss Gail turned to face her, "I want to show you something." Miss Gail went into her purse, and pulled out a flashy book that had lights on its cover. Lily didn't recognize it, in fact Lily had never seen anything like it before. "My fit chap gave this to me, and do you know what it tells me?" She smiled at Lily waiting for her to answer, but she didn't. "It tells me everything about the world, time, space, the entire history of the universe." Miss Gail smiled like she had been holding a great secret that she was finally going to get to share. "This chap of mine is part of a group," Miss Gail continued smiling slyly, "a very special group that is searching for the one that will bring the lost history." She turned on her heels holding the book close to her chest, "The lost history is spoken of in our book, we don't know whom yet but we are looking and gathering more humans for the cause." Miss Gail turned back to Lily who was still backing away from her, "I know you know that I deleted Mrs. Follmer last night, Lily. I saw you crying in your car so now you have a choice, you could either be upgraded from your tiny human American mind or you can be deleted." Miss Gail smiled like the Devil and Lily was going to make the deal to sell her soul.

"What is your problem with America?" Lily blurted out. "For the past day or two you have been saying that us Americans are stupid. You are American you have lived here all your life!" Lily wanted to avoid the possibility that she would not get to go home that night.

"Are you wonky?" Miss Gail asked exasperated. "I am talking about killing you, and you want to ask about my views on nationalism?" Miss Gail asked very confused.

"How would you say it? Bob's your Uncle." Lily had heard it, the noise that had startled her last night. She didn't know what it meant, or whether or not to be happy or scared out of her mind.

"Why are you asking such a pointless question?" Miss Gail asked obviously annoyed.

"Well you know," Lily started babbling on as she went, "I am just full of questions that have never been answered, so since I am probably going to die I might as well not leave with unanswered questions. Like, why do you smell like metal? Why are you wearing that earpiece? Why do you want to kill me?" Lily asked trying to stall Miss Gail and her own impending doom.

"None of those questions matter dearie, it only matters what this scanner has to say about you." She held the book out at Lily. "This will decide weather you receive an upgrade." The lights on the book flashed like it was taking a picture.

"What do you mean it will decide?" Lily was now up against the front desk with nowhere else to go. "What will the upgrade do?" Lily asked praying that her stalling might save her life.

"_You will become a Cyberman!_" Miss Gail said, no longer sounding like herself but the computerized voice from the night before. "_Our goal is to find The Drive, The Drive will bring us knowledge, power and the secret. Us Cybermen collect humans, and they become us and they help us search. The greatest weapon in the universe is The Drive and it is somewhere in Britain."_

"Then why the hell are you in the U.S.?" Lily asked confused, "Do I need to show you a map?" Lily wanted to know why the hell this had to be happening to her if they did not even need to be here.

"_We have been wrong before, and when we do wrong we upgrade ourselves to become better. And our upgrades tell us to check every where no matter how wanker the people in that country are." _Lily in her fear and knowledge of oncoming death could not help but feel a little offended.

"You know America is not that bad, you really underestimate us." Lily was actually becoming more annoyed than scared for her life at that moment. "Do not underestimate people, do not underestimate one man because he is not like you, because even one man can make a big difference." Lily was close to death; she could feel it and she had unintentionally decided that she should end her life with something of an inspirational speech. "Let me name a few shinning examples. Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Junior, Schindler, that lady who refused to give up her seat on the bus. Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, the gay football player, and what about Newton." Lily was really just trying to make the best of the rest of her life, and what the best of her public schooling had had to offer her up to that point.

"_You continue to rabbit on even though you know you are about to die." _Miss Gail looked board with Lily. "_You are so chuffed about America, you fancy it, why_?" Miss Gail asked, confused by Lily's monologue.

"What do you mean why?" Lily felt some more American insults coming on, but that was okay. Lily needed to keep Miss Gail talking if she had even a slim chance of getting out of this situation alive.

"_Well I am just Gobsmacked at how crazy you are about your country, Britain is obviously better made, and yet you choose to support America." _Miss Gail said insulting America just as Lily had predicted and agreed with Lily agreed with her. Everything Lily had preached were things only a fictional character would even think to say_. "You are really all just a bunch of stupid apes. You are crazy stupid apes."_

"We're the crazy ones? What about you?" Lily asked astounded by the insult, forgetting for a moment that the entire conversation was just a way to stall for time. "You are not exactly sane."

_ "What do you mean?" _Miss Gail asked. _"I am the perfect human. I am the future of this planet." _Lily calmed down and she had also grown a strange curiosity to know _what_ exactly was going to kill her.

"You are talking as if you were a robot, so you are not suppose to have any emotions?"Lily said loudly, thinking back to the sound she had heard earlier hoping someone had accompanied the beautiful noise.

"_The upgrade of this woman is incomplete, as soon as the upgrade is complete the woman will be dead and I will be all Cyberman."_ She pointed a finger at Lily,_ "You might be too if the scanner marks you favorably." _Miss Gail spoke in her computerized voice.

"Well what are you then, when you are in between human and Cyberman? I don't know whether to call you a Cyberman or Miss Gail." Lily said truthfully.

"_Miss what?"_ Miss Gail asked.

"Miss Gail," Lily felt a fresh wave of anger toward the _thing_ standing before her, "the woman you are taking over! The lips you are using belonged to Miss Gail!" Lily was mad that the thing didn't even know whose life it had taken.

"_The woman's hard drive is being wiped now to make room for The Drive. When the woman is wiped the Cyberman will only know of the mission and nothing else." _The scanner beeped in her hands. "_Ah, the scanner has made up its mind."_ She reached for the book. Lily could think of nothing else to do, she could think of no way to stop her. Then somewhere up stairs she heard the voice of a man. And the word was yelled out into the air telling Lily to get the hell out, they sounded like the word of a person risking it all right there.

"GERONIMO!" Lily pushed Miss Gail to the ground and ran to the EXIT door and kept running and not looking back as she heard the bang. She did not look back as she jumped into her car and drove out of the parking lot and to the school. Lily's blood was racing hot, she felt that she had never really lived before that moment. Lily was even afraid to admit that she had felt almost a rush of happiness, and that the experience could be classified as fun. Lily had officially lost her mind, and she did not care.

The man who had yelled "Geronimo" had just made the front desk computers explode. When the man got down stairs

there was no one in the room. He knew there had been two people or at least one human and one living thing. He took a short wand out of his pocket, it glowed green at the tip and made a funny noise. He flicked it up and looked at it closely, he seemed to have gained some kind of information from it because the next second he found the scanner on the ground. He took the wand again waved it over the scanner and it came to life flashing words on the screen that said, _'__**The Drive'**_ it sent out a loud high pitch screech and then the screen went black.

The man took it and walked back up the stairs, where there was a tall blue box and two other men leaning up against it talking. When they noticed the man coming they straightened up in interest.

"You get them." The taller one of them asked in his smooth American accent, he wore a long coat and he had jet-black hair.

"No. The human got away safely and the Cyberman escaped." The man answered in a British accent, he was shaking his head, "But we have bigger problems." He dropped the scanner into the hands of the guy wearing a pair of glasses he had green eyes and brown hair.

"What kind of problem?" Asked the guy with the black hair to the man but the guy in glasses answered in his British accent.

"They found what they were looking for." He said

inspecting the scanner's cover closely.

"How do you know?" the taller guy asked looking over the shorter guy's shoulder at the scanner.

"Because the scanner sent out a signal and every Cyberman in the world is on their way to the U.S.A." The man spoke watching the men study the book scanner. "Specifically to Illinois, specifically here." The taller guy blinked.

"What exactly are they looking for?" the shorter guy asked the 'Geronimo' man at glass's response and looked to the man who had blown up the computers.

"I am not sure but this entire thing is centered around libraries. So we are going hunting." The Geronimo man said walking to the doors of the box.

"For what?" the green eyed guy asked. The man stopped in front of the doors at the sound of his question.

"I have absolutely no idea." And the man walked into the blue box with a giant smile spread out over his face.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Lily goes through the school day never really calming down. She acts anxious and nervous throughout the day, jumping at the smallest noises and it does not go unnoticed.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked during study hall while they worked together on their homework.

"I am fine just a little tired that's all." The teacher assigned to their study hall came by and checked that they were doing their work. "Could you stay after school and help me out with something in the school library?" Lily asked while formulating a plan in her head.

"Equestrian club is meeting today," Anna said biting her pen, "but sure I'll just skip it. What kind of something?" The teacher came back and handed Anna a pass to go meet with a teacher down the hall before Lily could answer. When she returned from the teacher Anna asked again. "What kind of something?"

"Just some research." Lily said sinking back into troubled thoughts.

Lily went to her keyboarding class and sat down in her seat and pulled out the keyboard tray. Mr. Krick, the keyboarding teacher, smiled at her as she logged on.

"How are you today Lily?" His smile made her feel a little uncomfortable but she answered back anyway.

"Fine, and you Mr. Krick?" Lily asked.

"Oh very well thank you." He said still giving Lily that off putting smile. "Tell me have you been reading any interesting books on the world and time lately?" Lily confused for a fraction of a second, and felt a shiver run down her spine, all the warmth in her body leave her as she felt But Lily also felt a feeling of bravery and courage building up inside her. So without showing any sign of fear or comprehension decided to put Mr. Krick to the test.

"No, sir you should ask Mr. Tar, I am sure he would have some good reads for you." Lily lifted her head to meet his gaze her gutsiness surprising even herself.

"Who?" Mr. Krick asked

"The Global Connections and US History teacher." Lily explained. "The man you sit with at lunch in the cafeteria everyday." Lily was uncomfortable with Mr. Krick smiling down at her, but she kept her face straight and smiling.

"Yes, I should ask him next class period." Mr. Krick said smiling still that smile that was causing Lily's hair to stick up on the back of her neck. This time however Lily had a reason to have a genuine smile on her face.

"Mr. Krick, Mr. T doesn't work here any more." Strike one.

"I meant that I should email him next period, Lily." Mr. Krick said annoyed when he realized his mistake. "Now open the lesson for today please." And with that he walked back to his desk in the back of the classroom. A few minutes later the room was filled with the sound of typing. All was fine everyone was working for the majority of the period, and then 15 minutes before the end of class Mr. Krick's voice boomed out over the class.

"Oi! Do you think I am some bloody tosser!" Mr. Krick was pointing to two guys texting under their computer monitors. "You chaps over there, you two think it is funny to spend your night plastered? You think it is funny you might have got a girl up the duff?" He seemed to know what they were texting each other and was furious. "Well you must be knob heads then!" The girls on the opposite side of the room started giggling, and that was a big mistake on their part. "I will be giving your mums a bell too, and tell them how funny you think my class is!" The yelling had lasted for the whole fifteen minutes before the bell and it was so unexpected that everyone forgot to leave the classroom when the bell rang, all the students just looked at Mr. Krick. Every one had many different thoughts running through their heads but Lily had only one singular thought. Strike two.

Mr. Krick went back to looking at his computer and everyone took that as an invitation to pack up and leave the room. And when Lily was finished packing up, before she had a chance to leave the class her way was blocked by a tall blonde woman.

"Oi! You daft cow move." the blonde pushed Lily out of the way and into the wall, "Hello darling!" the British, lady pecked Mr. Krick on the cheek. Lily couldn't help but hang back in the hall, close to the wall, just outside the classroom to listen in on their conversation.

"Hello baby." Mr. Krick said, and Lily could hear the smile in his voice, "What are you doing here?"

"I brought you a gift." The woman said. Lily heard the rip of paper and the lid of a box opening. "Consider it an upgrade on our relationship." Lily couldn't help herself; she looked around the door frame and saw the lady wrap an earpiece around Mr. Krick's ear. The lady had pulled back her hair to reveal her own pair of earpieces. "Now we can match!" The lady said gleefully. Lily hadn't seen what happened next, she just walked away as fast as she could and had sat down in her Math class. Strike Three.

Anna and Lily walked together to the library after school, like they had planned to, and went straight to the computers. No one else but the school librarians were they're sitting in their office in the back having a meeting. The girls walked over to the Center Classroom and chose two computers next to each other to log in on.

"So what are we looking up?" Anna asked, but Lily really didn't know what to tell Anna much less what they should look up.

"Cybermen." She finally said.

"What are those?" Anna asked while opening Google and looking at her friend.

"I have absolutely no idea. We're doing research remember." Anna just shrugged and typed it into the Google search bar. As they had begun their search Lily realized she didn't like the results she got from credible science magazines talking about human and technological advancements. Anna thought it was a completely normal research project and that they were looking at good sources of information. And if it had been a normal school project they probably would've been perfect, but the only problem was it didn't match up with Lily's ideas about the Cybermen. She figured something like what she had experienced wouldn't exactly be published in something credible.

"Lily, I don't understand why none of these articles are working for you." Anna said leaning back in her chair exasperated and waving her hand at the screen. "This is a lot of good information from reliable places." Lily carefully looked at her friend.

"You promise not to call the police, and not to have me locked up in an asylum?" Lily asked, and Anna gave her a questioning face.

"Lily I would never do that," Anna said smiling, "besides we both know if one of us were to end up in the Looney bin, it would be me." She finished, pointing at herself. Lily let out a long sigh and spoke softly.

"Change your search to 'Humans that smell like metal calling themselves Cybermen' or just something along those lines." Lily studied Anna's face trying to make her own as serious looking as possible. Anna's face however showed no emotion, just a blank look, and turned around in her chair and typed the exact words Lily had just said into the search box.

"Okay." Anna finally spoke as she glanced over some of the search results. "I hope you realize how many people will have written these from inside whack-a-doodle prisons." Anna said smiling to herself as she started opening some of the suggestions Google had made.

"They might be the only things I believe." Lily muttered to herself. She searched her lists of suggestions thinking about how you know you have a true friend. She figured you know they are true when they don't question your crazy ideas and follow along without telling you how stupid you are acting.

"Okay this guy might be crazy enough to make sense." Anna said. Lily rolled over to Anna's station and looked at her screen. "It says: 'People are disappearing around the globe. Mainly based in the UK. Families are reporting their loved ones acting strange and smelling strongly of metal. Families all start their stories the same, a loved one starts seeing someone, and the very next day the person seems to change. One family in Ireland says their loved one quit their old job and got a new one at a computer programming company. Then a day later the home starts smelling like melting metal. Another interesting thing is that it seems centered around libraries of all kinds, public, school and famous libraries. A librarian at a public library in New York, USA tells us how a coworker lost her accent after she started dating a British man. She also says other coworkers went missing or started acting in the same strange way. In the end these people who smell of metal and speak British disappear.'" Anna looked at Lily as she reread the document.

"It is kind of funny isn't it?" Anna asked unsure weather it was funny or not.

"What?" Lily asked as she looked to her friend

"It is just a strange coincidence, that Miss Gail is acting strange and here it is on the Internet describing her behavior." Lily continued to look at the screen, until her nose started to burn.

"Could you go easy on the perfume Anna?" Lily asked plugging her nose.

"I am not wearing perfume." Anna said defensively as she smelled the air. "Something smells like it is burning." Lily thought for a second longer before she recognized the smell, 'burning metal' and 'librarians' is what the website had said. Lily turned around and saw the school librarians come out of the offices in the back, all of them wearing an earpiece. In the center of the librarians was Mrs. Smith carrying a flashing book.

"Anna log off. Now!" Lily said in an urgent but hushed tone as she logged off her own computer. When they had both logged off Lily began to drag Anna toward the exit at the front of the library. While Lily was exiting through the door, she ended up dragging Anna right into a man who was walking into the library.

"Sorry!" Anna called back over her shoulder to the man straightening his bow tie as she was being dragged away.

The man with the bow tie waved to the strange red headed child being pulled away by her friend as he picked up the camera he had been holding. He continued to straighten his bow tie as he walked to the group of librarians standing near the computer stations. The library was empty except for this strange group and the bow-tied man.

"Hello, it looks like you are all ready." The man said cheerfully.

"Ready for what?" Mrs. Smith, one of the librarians, asked with a confused look.

"The picture of course!" The bow tie man exclaimed excitedly holding up his camera. "You are the winners of the world's most exceptional school library. I am here to take the picture for the website." He smiled at them all standing in front of him. "You did win, didn't you?" The man asked starting to lean away from the group.

"Yes." Mrs. Smith answered, "Of course we did, you wouldn't be here if we hadn't." She said smiling.

"Good point, very good point." the man said smiling as he held the camera up to his face and pulled out his wand.

"What is that?" Mrs. Smith asked looking apprehensively at the wand and then at the bow tie man. The man looked at it then back at the woman with a bemused look.

"My flash miss, can't get a good picture with out a good flasher." He twirled it between his fingers. "This is the latest model they come out with for professional photographers, like me, because I am a professional photographer." He smiled gleefully at them his pale green eyes looking old and tired. The librarians probably thought it was from looking through a camera's lenses for so many years He held up his camera and 'flash'. "Everyone say dodgy." They said nothing but stared grimly at him.

"May I see your credentials?" Mrs. Smith asked. The man looked at her nametag and spoke to her as if in regret.

"Oh Mrs. Smith, I don't think I can do that." he shook his head with disappointment and sorrow.

"Why not?" Mrs. Smith asked stepping forward, the man quickly pointed his wand at the camera and streams of energy flew out at all the librarians who fell to the floor, stiff, uncomfortable and yelling at the man.

"You won no reward or contest what so ever. You were right," the man said throwing the camera to the side, "and this isn't some camera flash. This is a sonic screwdriver." The man said pointing to his wand, and then pulling a black wallet out of the inside pocket of the ridiculous tweed jacket he was wearing, flipped it open to show a piece of blank white paper. "I can't show you my credentials because, I would say my name is John Smith, which would be just a little awkward since we are not actually married, Mrs. Smith, and it would also be pretty awkward since psychic paper doesn't work on Cybermen." As he finished explaining he put the psychic paper back into his pocket.

"_Who are you?" _ Mrs. Smith asked, her voice now sounding like a computer's.

"You are asking the wrong question." The man said kneeling over the librarians. "A better question would be, what is the Drive? And another really good question would be, why do the Cybermen want it?"

"_You don't want to ask us why we are here?_" Mrs. Smith said straining to move a limb, even a finger.

"I know why you are here." The man said bobbing his head up and down with impatience. "You are here for the Drive. My question is, what is the Drive and why do you want it?" The man leaned over Mrs. Smith and picked up her arm. "You might as well answer since you are not going anywhere." The man said still holding up her limp arm.

"_Why can't we move? What did you do?" _Mrs. Smith pleaded in her computer voice.

"I am not going to tell you that." The man said laughing at what seemed to be an absurd question. "You and your friends will just run a diagnostic on it, then you will fix it, and then you will protect yourself so it will never happen again. That is what you do you upgrade to the better model, the better protection, the better weapon." He said releasing her arm and allowing it to just fall back to the floor. "Now answer my questions, what is The Drive and why do the Cybermen want it?"

"_Not 'what' or 'it' sir, but 'whom' is the Drive." _Mrs. Smith smiled at him._ "The Drive will upgrade us to our best she will give us information sir, grave and brilliant information." The doctor stayed in his squatting position next to the paralyzed _Mrs. Smith.

"Okay, so now it seems I am asking the wrong questions, so answer me this," The man started again looking gravely at the paralyzed woman, "and be as specific as you possibly can because your life may depend on it." He leaned in close to Mrs. Smith and whispered in her ear. "Who is The Drive?" She smirked at him.

"_You said that was a 'sonic screwdriver' right?" _Mrs. Smith asked smiling.

_ "_Yes?" The man answered frowning unsatisfied with being asked a question instead of receiving an answer. But Mrs. Smith's eyes flashed blue and her face took on a neutral expression.

"_Diagnostics run. Run Diagnostics. Factor in sonic capability. And find protection."_ Her face molded back into it's own and she smiled at the man. _"Thank you sir. Now if you plan on living I suggest you leave before diagnostics are done."_ The man got up and walked to the door. _"Good bye sir."_ Mrs. Smith called after him from the ground.

Outside the school, waiting beside the tall blue box, were the same two guys that were with the man that morning in the public library.

"How did it go this time?" asked the shorter one.

"Progress Ricky." The man said to the short one with the glasses and green eyes, he was called Ricky. "Progress. Turns out the Drive is a 'who' not a thing and that person is female, and they want her for some great big information." The taller guy was laughing. "What?" The man asked.

"You seem to be losing your British accent." The 'Geronimo' man had disguised his normal accent with a rough American one. "I can barely recognize your voice." The tall one finished.

"Yes, and for a good reason, if by chance this girl is as smart and all knowing as the Cybermen believe her to be then she might have noticed the fact that Cybermen talk with British accents." The man explained to the taller gentleman. "And if I were her I wouldn't trust anyone with a British accent, would you?" The taller guy shook his head. "We are going to split up, and we are going to try and find the area with the strongest smell of metal." The man started to explain. "I am hopping it will lead us to that librarian from this morning; I want to talk to her before her upgrade is complete. Got it?" Ricky and the tall guy nodded as they took devices the man had pulled out from one of his pockets.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

After saying good by to Anna, Lily went straight home after leaving the school. She was suppose to be volunteering but she knew who might be waiting for her there. She had called one of the other librarians to say she wouldn't be going that afternoon. Lily who had nothing to do just sat on her bed, her homework done, she knew her U.S. History material like the back of her hand and she had no new books to read. Anna had asked if Lily would want to hang out after they left the school, in the parking lot, but Lily had said no because her head was just too full of ideas. She tried to do more research on the Cybermen but she was afraid they might be able to figure out who and where someone was Googling them. So instead Lily decided to go outside and walk around her neighborhood.

Even was doing better but now his mom was sick so he didn't want to leave her side. So by herself Lily walked her neighborhood, which took her only about 5 minutes so she did another walk through. Then she noticed him, across the street standing on the other sidewalk; a guy maybe a little shorter than her with red hair was standing looking down at something in his hands. Lily could see that he had a strong build and wore glasses that somehow made him look even better than he already did. These thoughts made Lily laugh; she could not help it, and the idea that Anna's boy craziness might be rubbing off onto her. But the guy had heard her laugh and when he turned to look over at her she ducked her head and stared at the pavement. When she looked up though he was still there smiling at her. She waved at him and he waved back. Lily felt an uncontrollable feeling of happiness, and when he started walked over to her she felt about a dozen butterflies flying around inside her. And when he got close enough so that she could look into his green eyes her stomach did ten backflips.

"Hi." He said his voice cracked when he greeted her and his cheeks turned a light pink, Lily smiled.

"Hello." Lily greeted back. "Do you live around here?" She asked, not wanting there to be any awkward silences she asked this quickly and felt a little bit awkward but he didn't seem to notice.

"No I'm just visiting really, I'm travel with two friends of mine. Do you?" He asked. "I mean, live around here, do you live around here?" He rubbed his hands nervously on the back of his neck.

"Yes, I live down the street." Lily pointed in the direction of her home feeling the adrenaline rush through her.

"Where do you live?" Lily looked at him curiously, she had been nervous when she noticed the accent sounded British but she also noticed that he wasn't wearing any sort of earpiece.

"Oh I live in London. But it is still even farther away than that." There was a little silence between them; the green-eyed guy broke it. "So you have any interests?" Lily smiled at his question.

"I love to read books and I am an artist and skilled scrap booker." Lily started, a little uncomfortable talking about herself but happy to see he was actually listening and taking such an interest in her. "Oh and I am really good in a kitchen. How about you," Lily asked playing with her hands behind her back, "any interests?" She smiled and gave him a nervous glance.

"I enjoy a good book every now and then but I am really into Xbox and Legos." He smiled feeling kind of geeky. Here he was talking to a beautiful and creative girl, and he is talking about his gaming addictions.

"No way!" Lily exclaimed, "Do you play Lego games on your Xbox?"

"Of course!" He smiled to her. "Do you?"

"Pirates of the Caribbean, and Harry Potter." Lily responded grinning from ear to ear.

"I love Harry Potter!" the green-eyed boy smiled brightly, now more confident about what to say to Lily.

"Do you like cats?" Lily asked.

"Who doesn't?" He asked jokingly.

"Dog lovers." The two of them said at the same time.

"I have two, cats. They are named Kit and Kat!" Lily explained still smiling.

"Those are the best cat names I have ever heard!" The guy answered honestly.

"I know right!" Lily responded ecstatically.

"How old are you?" The guy asked.

"I am turning 17 in November, so seven months." Lily answered.

"You still in school?"

"My sophomore year. And you how old are you?"

"I am going on 18, I graduated early so now I am just traveling." The guy spoke and started thinking quickly as he tried to come up with something else to say to keep the conversation going. "You have any ideas for college?" Lily, ready to spill her whole life to this guy, was stopped short by the guy's ringing phone. He pulled it out of his pocket "Sorry." He checked the caller ID. "I have to take this." Lily nodded a little yes and stood back a little.

"Ricky, here." Lily mouthed his name and giggled on the inside. "Hey, what's the plan?" there was a pause. "He said that?" Pause. "Now?" He asked looking toward Lily then back to the street. "You guys really need me now?" He sounded disappointed and torn between two choices. Lily, seeing where this was going, dug around and pulled a thin point sharpie from her pocket. She walked over to him and took his free hand. And feeling brave, courageous and confident she wrote, 'Hate to say goodbye but call me sometime!' she dotted her exclamation point with a heart and wrote her phone number under the message. Ricky had a wide grin as she walked away, waving goodbye.

"I will be right there." Ricky said hanging up the phone watching the girl with no name walk toward what he figured was direction of home.


End file.
